Tone enjoyment

[CTN]

I've been playing around a bit with my rig lately, and I've pretty much got flippin amazing tone.

My strat (DMZ Super Dist bridge, noname stacked single mid, DMZ Fast track 2 wired parallel in the neck) through my JCA through my Sunn cab with G12T75s and G1265s in an X pattern sounds so awesome right now

As far as effects I'm using just a Boss EQ for some pre-preamp tone shaping/boost.

Thick, luscious, syrupy humbucker tones, but with a fluid, snappy and incredibly articulate strat timbre and feel.

The FastTrack2 in parallel is brilliant - warm, and piano like, but with glassy, bell like resonance and with a bit of hot sizzle around the edges.

The Super Distortion I put in the bridge in the hope that its thickness and mids would combat the unrelenting snappiness of the strat construction and come out sounding more balanced. It sorta worked. It thickened out the sound a little, but it still sounds bright and snappy in the bridge. Still pulls off any genre with ease. The extra snappiness helps to add some extra articulation and high mids to the SuperD sound. very cool.

None of my other guitars sound this good through my rig :/

then again, I've only recently started getting to "understand" my strat, after owning it for like 15 years - maybe I haven't discovered my other guitars yet.

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: Tone enjoyment

Sweet man, glad to hear it. I recently "got" my tone. With my SG Classic and Deville... now I'm finishing my pedalboard and have an awesome rig!!!

SG Classic (and Ibanez GSA60 w/59B) into EB Volume Pedal Jr., EH Freeze, Rockron Nitro Boost, Digital Delay, Electric Mistress. into Hot Rod Deville ..... Super awesome ambient board.

(I may have a wah too but I'm not sure yet, I don't like wah much but it might sound cool with the Freeze, we'll see. )

[blueman335]

Re: Tone enjoyment

None of my other guitars sound this good through my rig :/

then again, I've only recently started getting to "understand" my strat, after owning it for like 15 years - maybe I haven't discovered my other guitars yet.

Sometimes you have to tweak a while to get a guitar dialed in. Your rig may work well for the other guitars, but you may have to play around with the settings to find the magic combination. Write them down so you'll remember them! Then too, part of the formula is the how the PU/magnet/pot works with the guitar's wood. So many variables!

How many players think you can buy a guitar and PU, plug it into any amp, and get a guaranteed tone?

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Tone enjoyment

I enjoyed the hell out of my tone last night.

I ran:

Epiphone Les Paul Custom (White! because color matters!) to
BOSS CS-3 Compressor to
Bad Monkey to
Monte Allums DS-1 to
Line 6 Echo Park Delay (on Ducking mode) to
Digitech JamMan Looper to
AD15VT on AC15 mode, Line Out to
Power Amp In of Hot Rod DeVille

So basically, compression and optional overdrive to a 6L6 driven AC15 tone through two 12" speakers.

I was using the Valvetronix as the preamp (all solid state / digital modeling / magic) and the DeVille as the power amp. Sounded great.

It was awesome, I should have recorded it.

I still have all my knobs turned the same way, I guess I could.

[DankStar]

Re: Tone enjoyment

that's cool. I hear you on understanding after a long time. gotta do what the guitar or amp does best, not what you think you want it to do - easier said than done sometimes. but also a good reason to have a good mix of stuff laying around - I'm currently missing out on a whole world of P90 sounds, and that make me

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Tone enjoyment

gotta do what the guitar or amp does best, not what you think you want it to do

Excellent articulation of something I've been having a hard time putting into words - love that.

[eschoendorff]

Re: Tone enjoyment

Okay... Anyone ever have this happen?

You're playing one day and everything's great. You're having a religious tone experience. Leave all your knobs and settings alone. Come back the next day, fire up the rig and for some reason the "awesome" is gone. Same guitar, same gear, same settings, same player - and decent tone but something feels like it's missing.

I'm starting to think that the passage of time might suck tone.

[blueman335]

Re: Tone enjoyment

You're playing one day and everything's great. You're having a religious tone experience. Leave all your knobs and settings alone. Come back the next day, fire up the rig and for some reason the "awesome" is gone. Same guitar, same gear, same settings, same player - and decent tone but something feels like it's missing.

I think it's more the mood you're in, than gremlins changing things overnight. Then too, a new tone has a novelty to it that can wear off. It can be inspiring one day, and then not so much. Maybe you begin to hear shortcomings in it, that you overlooked before in your initial excitement. Great tones should stand the test of time.

[Agileguy_101]

Re: Tone enjoyment

Okay... Anyone ever have this happen?

You're playing one day and everything's great. You're having a religious tone experience. Leave all your knobs and settings alone. Come back the next day, fire up the rig and for some reason the "awesome" is gone. Same guitar, same gear, same settings, same player - and decent tone but something feels like it's missing.

Nope. I'm just that awesome.

Seriously though, that's never happened to me. If the tone is different and the settings are the same, it usually means I'm playing differently.

I'm starting to think that the passage of time might suck tone.

True bypass it

[Kam]

Re: Tone enjoyment

Okay... Anyone ever have this happen?

You're playing one day and everything's great. You're having a religious tone experience. Leave all your knobs and settings alone. Come back the next day, fire up the rig and for some reason the "awesome" is gone. Same guitar, same gear, same settings, same player - and decent tone but something feels like it's missing.

I'm starting to think that the passage of time might suck tone.

All the damn time.

I haven't changed the settings on my amp or dirt pedal in God knows how long and it still seems pretty different to me some nights. I'm certainly not discounting psycho-acoustics and Blueman raises some good points but I also think it probably has something to do with the ancient wiring in my house and sketchy power supplies. For instance, my amp buzzes quite considerably more when the main light in the hall outside my room is on. Sometimes I'm like, "What the hell's wrong with this thing?" and then I remember that I forgot to switch that damn light off. I really think that the amount of other electrical appliances and whatnot in your house that are turned on can really affect the tone of your amp because they're affecting the amount of current flow to it, or something. Well, when your mains power supply is a bit old, anyway.

[Metalblaze]

Re: Tone enjoyment

Okay... Anyone ever have this happen?

You're playing one day and everything's great. You're having a religious tone experience. Leave all your knobs and settings alone. Come back the next day, fire up the rig and for some reason the "awesome" is gone. Same guitar, same gear, same settings, same player - and decent tone but something feels like it's missing.

I'm starting to think that the passage of time might suck tone.

It's just our mood! Once it was there, the "awesome" will be back.

[ImmortalSix]

Re: Tone enjoyment

I know that feeling - some would say it could be attributable to tubes being warm or speakers being warm or something, but my best guess is somewhere between "number of beers you've drank" and gremlins.

[TheLivingDead]

Re: Tone enjoyment

It's just our mood! Once it was there, the "awesome" will be back.

Yeah I was gonna say. It's the inspiration in that very moment that made the tone. Coming back to it cold the next day will never be the same.

[SamusChief]

Re: Tone enjoyment

I also recently obtained a satisfactory tone. I get massive amounts of bass without being muddy at all. How? Simple. I take a standard mic, mic my amp, which is set to put out mostly mids and treble, and plug that into another amp right below it. This one puts out exclusively bass on the highest bass-having channel. This volume is almost equalized with the main amp. This creates a tone that, to me, is articulate and clear, but still shakes the whole room at bedroom volumes.

[crusty philtrum]

Re: Tone enjoyment

Tone is not for enjoying ..... tone is for agonising over, spending all your money on, pursuing endlessly and fruitlessly, losing your family and friends over .... not for enjoying !!!!

Whassa madda wit you people ???????